̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Cardiovascular Strategic Research Initiative

Cambridge research receives £5 million boost for ‘world-leading’ cardiovascular research

cjb250 — Tue, 28 May 2024 11:10:58 +0000

̽��ֱ��funding will support the university to cultivate a world-class research environment that encourages collaboration, inclusion and innovation, and where visionary scientists can drive lifesaving breakthroughs.

Professor Martin Bennett, BHF Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “This is a fantastic achievement from the whole Cambridge team. This award will support our multiple research programmes identifying new targets and treatments for vascular disease and heart failure, new ways to reduce the consequences of diabetes and obesity, and how we can get our research used to treat patients.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge award is part of a £35 million boost to UK cardiovascular disease research from the British Heart Foundation. It comes from the charity’s highly competitive Research Excellence Awards funding scheme. ̽��ֱ��£5 million award to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge will support researchers to:

Combine their expertise to work on cardiovascular diseases and in populations with high unmet need.
Identify new markers and disease targets for a wide range of cardiovascular diseases, and test new drugs in clinical trials.
Develop new ways to diagnose cardiovascular disease and harness the power of artificial intelligence from imaging and health records to identify people at highest risk.
Generate user-friendly risk communication and management tools to improve the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease.

Professor Bryan Williams, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We’re delighted to continue to support research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge addressing the biggest challenges in cardiovascular disease. This funding recognises the incredible research happening at Cambridge and will help to further its reputation as a global leader in the field.

“With generous donations from our supporters, this funding will attract the brightest talent, power cutting-edge science, and unlock lifesaving discoveries that can turn the tide on the devastation caused by heart and circulatory diseases.”

Research Excellence Awards offer greater flexibility than traditional research funding, allowing scientists to quickly launch ambitious projects that can act as a springboard for larger, transformative funding applications.

̽��ֱ��funding also aims to break down the silos that have traditionally existed in research, encouraging collaboration between experts from diverse fields. From clinicians to data scientists, biologists to engineers, the funding will support universities to attract the brightest minds, nurture new talent and foster collaboration to answer the biggest questions in heart and circulatory disease research.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has previously been awarded £9 million funding through the BHF’s Research Excellence Awards scheme. This funding has supported research that will lay the foundations for future breakthroughs, including:

Research showing that low doses of a cancer drug could improve recovery after a heart attack. ̽��ֱ��drug boosts activity of anti-inflammatory immune cells that can cause harmful inflammation in blood vessels supplying the heart. It’s currently being tested in clinical trials to see if it benefits patients.
A new risk calculator to enable doctors across the UK and Europe predict who is at risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years with greater accuracy. ̽��ֱ��calculator has been adopted by the European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice.
Developing imaging and artificial intelligence tools to improve diagnosis of heart and vascular disease by enhancing analysis of scans for disease activity and high-risk fatty plaques. These tools can be rapidly implemented to support diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
A study investigating whether an epilepsy medication could help to prevent strokes in people with a common gene variant. ̽��ֱ��change in the gene HDAC9 can cause it to become ‘overactive’ and increase stroke risk. ̽��ֱ��epilepsy medication sodium valproate blocks the HDAC9 activity, so could reduce stroke risk in people with the variant.
Discovery of rare and common changes in the genetic code that influences proteins and small molecules in the blood, helping us understand the development of cardiovascular diseases and identify novel drug targets.

Adapted from a press release by BHF

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has received £5 million funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to support its world-class cardiovascular disease research over the next five years, the charity has announced.

This is a fantastic achievement from the whole Cambridge team. This award will support our multiple research programmes.

Martin Bennett

Lloyd Mann

Professor Martin Bennett standing outside the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Type 2 diabetes diagnosis at age 30 can reduce life expectancy by up to 14 years

cjb250 — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 09:00:51 +0000

Even people who do not develop the condition until later in life – with a diagnosis at age 50 years – could see their life expectancy fall by up to six years, an analysis of data from 19 high-income countries found.

̽��ֱ��researchers say the findings, published in ̽��ֱ��Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, highlight the urgent need to develop and implement interventions that prevent or delay onset of diabetes, especially as the prevalence of diabetes among younger adults is rising globally.

Increasing levels of obesity, poor diet and increased sedentary behaviour are driving a rapid rise in the number of cases of type 2 diabetes worldwide. In 2021, 537 million adults were estimated to have diabetes worldwide, with an increasing number diagnosed at younger ages.

Type 2 diabetes increases an individual’s risk of a range of complications including heart attack and stroke, kidney problems, and cancer. Previous estimates have suggested that adults with type 2 diabetes die, on average, six years earlier than adults without diabetes. There is uncertainty, however, about how this average reduction in life expectancy varies according to age at diagnosis.

To answer this question, a team led by scientists at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and ̽��ֱ�� of Glasgow examined data from two major international studies – the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration and UK Biobank – comprising a total of 1.5 million individuals.

̽��ֱ��earlier an individual was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the greater the reduction in their life expectancy. Overall, every decade of earlier diagnosis of diabetes was associated with about four years of reduced life expectancy.

Using data from US population it was estimated that, individuals with type 2 diabetes diagnosed at ages 30, 40, and 50 years died on average about 14, 10, and 6 years earlier, respectively, than individuals without the condition. These estimates were slightly higher in women (16, 11, and 7 years, respectively) than they were in men (14, 9, and 5 years, respectively).

̽��ֱ��findings were broadly similar in analyses using EU data, with corresponding estimates being about 13, 9, or 5 years earlier death on average.

Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio from the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute (VPD-HLRI), ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Type 2 diabetes used to be seen as a disease that affected older adults, but we’re increasingly seeing people diagnosed earlier in life. As we’ve shown, this means they are at risk of a much shorter life expectancy than they would otherwise have.”

Dr Stephen Kaptoge, also from the VPD-HLRI, said: “Type 2 diabetes can be prevented if those at greatest risk can be identified and offered support – whether that’s to make changes to their behaviour or to provide medication to lower their risk. But there are also structural changes that we as a society should be pursuing, including relating to food manufacturing, changes to the built environment to encourage more physical activity, and so on.

“Given the impact type 2 diabetes will have on people’s lives, preventing – or at least delaying the onset – of the condition should be an urgent priority.”

̽��ֱ��researchers found that the majority of the reduction in life expectancy associated with diabetes was due to ‘vascular deaths’ – deaths related to conditions such as heart attack, stroke and aneurysms. Other complications such as cancer also contributed to lowering life expectancy.

Professor Naveed Sattar from the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences, ̽��ֱ�� of Glasgow, added: “Our findings support the idea that the younger an individual is when they develop type 2 diabetes, the more damage their body accumulates from its impaired metabolism. But the findings also suggest that early detection of diabetes by screening followed by intensive glucose management could help prevent long-term complications from the condition.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge team was supported by the Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Health Data Research UK and NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration. Life expectancy associated with different ages at diagnosis of diabetes: 23 million person-years of observation. Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology; 11 Sept 2023; DOI: 10.1016/S2213-8587(23)00223-1

An individual diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at age 30 years could see their life expectancy fall by as much as 14 years, an international team of researchers has warned.

Given the impact type 2 diabetes will have on people’s lives, preventing – or at least delaying the onset – of the condition should be an urgent priority

Stephen Kaptoge

Elva Etienne (Getty Images)

Man using blood sugar measurement device to monitor diabetes - stock photo

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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New Heart and Lung Research Institute opens

cjb250 — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:31:58 +0000

A major new institute opens today, bringing together the largest concentration of scientists and clinicians in heart and lung medicine in Europe.

Reducing TV viewing to less than one hour a day could help prevent more than one in ten cases of coronary heart disease

cjb250 — Tue, 24 May 2022 00:00:49 +0000

In a study published today in BMC Medicine, researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit show that – assuming a causal link – 11% of cases of coronary heart disease could be prevented if people watched less than an hour of TV each day.

According to the British Heart Foundation, coronary heart disease is one of the UK’s leading causes of death, responsible for around 64,000 deaths each year. In the UK, one in eight men and one in 15 women die from the disease. People with coronary heart disease are twice as likely to have a stroke.

One of the major risk factors for coronary heart disease is sedentary behaviour – in other words, sitting for long periods of time rather than being physically active. To examine the link between time spent in screen-based sedentary behaviours such as TV viewing and leisure-time computer use, an individual’s DNA, and their risk of coronary heart disease, researchers examined data from the UK Biobank, a biomedical database and research resource containing anonymised genetic, lifestyle and health information from half a million UK participants.

̽��ֱ��team created polygenic risk scores for each individual – that is, their genetic risk of developing coronary heart disease based on 300 genetic variants known to influence their chances of developing the condition. As expected, individuals with higher polygenic risk scores were at greatest risk of developing the condition.

People who watched more than four hours of TV per day were at greatest risk of the disease, regardless of their polygenic risk score. Compared to these individuals, people who watched two to three hours of TV a day had a relative 6% lower rate of developing the condition, while those who watched less than an hour of TV had a relative 16% lower rate. These associations were independent of genetic susceptibility and other known risk factors.

Leisure time spent using a computer did not appear to influence disease risk.

“Our study provides unique insights into the potential role that limiting TV viewing might have in preventing coronary heart disease,” said Dr Youngwon Kim, assistant professor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Hong Kong, and visiting researcher at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, the study’s corresponding author. “Individuals who watch TV for less than one hour a day were less likely to develop the condition, independent of their genetic risk.

“Limiting the amount of time sat watching TV could be a useful, and relatively light touch, lifestyle change that could help individuals with a high genetic predisposition to coronary heart disease in particular to manage their risk.”

Dr Katrien Wijndaele from the MRC Epidemiology Unit, last author of the study, said: “Coronary heart disease is one of the most prominent causes of premature death, so finding ways to help people manage their risk through lifestyle modification is important.

“ ̽��ֱ��World Health Organization recommends reducing the amount of sedentary behaviour and replacing it with physical activity of any intensity as a way of keeping healthier. While it isn’t possible to say for certain that sitting watching TV increases your risk of coronary heart disease, because of various potential confounding factors and measurement error, our work supports the WHO’s guidelines. It suggests a straightforward, measurable way of achieving this goal for the general population as well as individuals at high genetic risk of coronary heart disease.”

There are several potential reasons that might explain the link between TV viewing and coronary heart disease risk, say the team – and in particular, why no link was found with computer use. TV viewing tends to occur in the evening following dinner, usually our most calorific meal, leading to higher levels of glucose and lipids, such as cholesterol, in the blood. People also often snack more when watching TV compared to when surfing the web, for example. Lastly, TV viewing tends to be prolonged, whereas individuals using their computer may be more likely to break up their activity.

̽��ֱ��research was funded by the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the ̽��ֱ�� of Hong Kong.

Reference
Kim, Y, et al. Genetic susceptibility, screen-based sedentary activities and incidence of coronary heart disease. BMC Medicine; 24 May 2022; DOI: 10.1186/s12916-022-02380-7

Watching too much TV is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease regardless of an individual’s genetic makeup, say a team of scientists at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the ̽��ֱ�� of Hong Kong.

Limiting the amount of time sat watching TV could be a useful, and relatively light touch, lifestyle change that could help individuals with a high genetic predisposition to coronary heart disease in particular to manage their risk

Youngwon Kim

yousafbhutta

Couple watching TV

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Epilepsy drug could help prevent stroke in people with ‘furred’ arteries

cjb250 — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 07:45:01 +0000

A drug used to treat epilepsy patients could help prevent stroke in people whose arteries show signs of atherosclerosis – furring of the arteries – scientists will tell audiences at the Cambridge Festival.

New risk calculator to help save many more lives from heart attack and stroke

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Jun 2021 23:12:13 +0000

̽��ֱ��risk calculator, SCORE2, will be adopted by the upcoming European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice, and enables doctors across Europe to predict who’s at risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years with greater accuracy.

̽��ֱ��researchers say this new prediction tool will help save many more people across Europe from having a potentially deadly heart attack or stroke, ultimately saving lives. People who are flagged as having an increased risk can be put on personalised preventative treatment, such a statins, or will receive lifestyle advice to lower their risk.

Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge played a leading role in a major collaborative effort involving around 200 investigators to develop SCORE2. Researchers across Europe analysed data from nearly 700,000 participants - mostly middle-aged - from 45 different studies. ̽��ֱ��tool has also been tailored for use in different European countries.

Participants had no prior history of heart and circulatory disease when they were recruited to the studies, and in the 10 years they were followed up, 30,000 had a ‘cardiovascular event’ – including fatal or non-fatal heart attack or stroke.

̽��ֱ��risk tool was then statistically ‘recalibrated’, by using regional-specific cardiovascular and risk factor data from 10.8 million people, to more accurately estimate cardiovascular risk for populations split into four European risk regions. ̽��ֱ��tool uses known risk factors for heart and circulatory diseases such as age, sex, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and smoking.

This is a much-needed upgrade from the previous prediction tool that was developed using data before 1986 and underestimated the cardiovascular risk in some countries. ̽��ֱ��new SCORE2 risk calculator now accounts for current trends in heart and circulatory diseases, can predict both fatal and non-fatal conditions and is adaptable to countries with different levels of risk.

̽��ֱ��researchers say that this upgrade will better estimate the cardiovascular risk amongst younger people, and will improve how treatment is tailored for older people and those in high-risk regions across Europe.

Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence, said: “This risk tool is much more powerful and superior than what doctors have used for decades. It will fit seamlessly into current prevention programmes with substantial real-world impact by improving the prevention of cardiovascular diseases across Europe before they strike.”

Dr Lisa Pennells, also at Cambridge’s BHF Centre of Research Excellence, said: “This project was a highly collaborative effort that has brought together key experts and extensive data sources to develop improved risk prediction tools for cardiovascular disease for use across the UK and Europe.

“A key feature is that our calculators are relevant to current day rates of cardiovascular disease in different regions of Europe. Importantly, our methods allow them to be easily updated using routinely collected data in the future to ensure they stay relevant as trends in heart and circulatory diseases change.”

This study was carried out by the SCORE2 Working Group and the European Society of Cardiology Cardiovascular Risk Collaboration. It was supported by organisations including the British Heart Foundation, the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and Health Data Research UK.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director at the BHF and cardiologist, said: “Heart and circulatory diseases are the world’s biggest killers, impacting the lives of 7.6 million people across the UK alone.

“This new risk tool is a major advance and will save many more people from developing heart attacks, stroke and heart disease, all of which develop silently over many years and strike without warning. It will be the new gold standard for doctors to determine which patients are at the highest risk of these conditions, and enable tailored treatment and lifestyle advice to be given much earlier.”

Reference
SCORE2 risk prediction algorithms: revised models to estimate 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease in Europe. European Heart Journal; 14 June 2021; DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehab309

Adapted from a press release from the British Heart Foundation

A new risk calculator will better predict people at high risk of heart and circulatory diseases years before they strike, and is ready for use across the UK and Europe, according to research published in the journal European Heart Journal.

This risk tool... will fit seamlessly into current prevention programmes with substantial real-world impact by improving the prevention of cardiovascular diseases across Europe before they strike

Emanuele Di Angelantonio

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Man clutching his heart

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Switching off heart protein could protect against heart failure

cjb250 — Thu, 27 May 2021 07:42:12 +0000

There is an unmet need to find drugs that can successfully improve the heart’s ability to pump blood efficiently after it’s been damaged following a heart attack. However, many drugs that make failing heart muscle contract more strongly have been deemed unsafe, leaving a huge gap in heart attack and heart failure treatment. Scientists now believe that they might have identified a new drug target – a protein called MARK4.

In research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), Cambridge scientists found levels of MARK4 were elevated in mouse hearts after a heart attack. When they compared mice with and without MARK4 in the heart, they found hearts without the protein were 57 per cent better at pumping blood. This protective effect was seen 24 hours after a heart attack and lasted for the entire follow-up period of four weeks.

̽��ֱ��team identified for the first time that MARK4 fine-tunes a structural network within the heart muscle cell – called the microtubule network – that attaches to the machinery which makes heart muscle cells contract and relax. When MARK4 levels were increased after a heart attack, microtubules were tightly anchored onto the contractile machinery in the heart, causing more resistance and preventing them from functioning normally. When MARK4 levels were reduced, microtubules were loosely anchored, making it easier for the heart to contract and relax.

After a heart attack, in the heart muscle cells of mice without MARK4, the speed of contraction increased by 42 per cent and the speed of relaxation increased by 47 per cent, compared to muscle cells from mice with the MARK4 protein. They were also close to functioning at the same level as healthy heart muscle cells, showing the power of lowering levels of MARK4.

Now, the researchers suggest that drugs to switch off MARK4 could provide a promising new way to improve recovery and help the heart to pump blood more efficiently in people with failing hearts.

Dr Xuan Li, BHF Intermediate Research Fellow at ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge BHF Centre of Research Excellence, said: “After years of research we’ve revealed an entirely new and promising way that could help the recovery of failing hearts.

“It’s early days, and we now need to test the longer-term effects of switching off MARK4. But if drugs to do that prove successful, the life-changing benefits could be seen in people with other types of heart disease as well as those who’ve had a heart attack and developed heart failure.”

Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Heart attacks are a major cause of disability worldwide - people who’ve had a major heart attack are at much greater risk of developing chronic heart failure. There are around 920,000 people living with heart failure in the UK, and we desperately need drugs to drastically improve the heart’s function in these patients.

“These findings are a positive step forward. Further research is needed to refine and test drugs that can target MARK4 before we’ll see them given to people who’ve had a heart attack and develop heart failure.”

This study was also supported by the Isaac Newton Trust, Wellcome, Cancer Research UK and the German Research Foundation.

Reference
Yu, X et al. MARK4 controls ischaemic heart failure through microtubule detyrosination. Nature; 26 May 2021; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03573-5

Adapted from a press release by the British Heart Foundation.

Switching off a heart muscle protein could provide a new way for drugs to combat heart failure in people who’ve had a heart attack, according to research led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and published in the journal Nature.

After years of research we’ve revealed an entirely new and promising way that could help the recovery of failing hearts

Xuan Li

geralt

Heart graphic

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Could a vaccine protect us against heart attacks?

cjb250 — Thu, 20 May 2021 07:15:46 +0000

Professor Ziad Mallat and his team have been shortlisted for a £30 million grant from the British Heart Foundation. If successful, atherosclerosis – hardening of the arteries – could become a thing of the past.